Seeking Worthy Pursuits: A Dark Romantic Suspense Novel (Alace Sweets Book 2)

by MariaLisa deMora

  The basement floor was divided into a grid housing what looked like four low, metal containers. They appeared to be squat structures independent of the house itself, but each of them was outfitted with internal viewing portals, like a child’s view of an aquarium. Whatever was being kept in those was intended as entertainment on demand, unable to hide in a corner.

  “Check the thermal.” Owen’s diction was crisp, all business, the casual play from before cast aside like an old set of shoes. “Look at me, and then look at those ghosts.”

  “That’s why they’re so dimmed. The metal surrounding them diffuses the signature. You show up just as clearly as you did in the hallway above.” Alace glanced at the center monitor, seeing another three views had gone red, indicating Temple had passed their positions. “Closing in on three minutes. I’m going to reactivate the perimeter alarm so they have to disarm to come in through the garage door. That traps you inside the house, Owen.”

  “Roger.” He’d reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped off onto the main basement floor. “The dimensions are wrong. This space is about half as big as it should be. There is a wall that crosses the full width. See?” His glasses cam swept from side to side. “Internal stairs must end up in that smaller side. This entire setup is hidden from casual view.” His bodycam moved up and down with a deep breath. “If Worthson is in the left-hand enclosure…fuck, Alace, it is a holding pen. Remember the clearing?” For the second time, Alace noted the audio software didn’t pick up nuance of inflection. Another reason to see what improvements can be made to it. Her connection would be thrilled with this kind of feedback, and she made a note to debrief Owen about the wearer’s experience with the software specifically. “These dimensions are the same. I would bet money on it.”

  “Check the one to your right. It’s fully dark on the thermal. It’ll give you an idea of what you can see inside the others.” Alace’s fingers trembled as she minimized the street view videos, easing her way into the residential alarm system to silently reset it. Then she worked her way back to the computer off the kitchen, looking for the possibility of a secondary video monitoring system. Bingo. “I think there’s probably video inside the pens. Verifying now.” The first two she pulled up were blank, the wireless devices’ batteries dead, cameras inactive. The third showed a man from behind, angled over his head as he reclined on a mat on the floor. There was movement near his groin, and she realized he was jerking off, but something was odd about the image. Alace manipulated the camera and zoomed in to see he wasn’t using his own hand to touch his cock. He had a dismembered doll’s arm and was using that to flop his semi-hard penis from side to side. It looked disturbingly like a child’s hand touching him, and Alace jerked backwards in her chair, fingers flying to change the camera’s focus again. The device must have made a sound as the shutter shifted, because he craned his neck around, looking up at the camera. He was old and grizzled, beard trailing down to the middle of his bare chest. He was completely naked, she realized, and when he grinned at the camera, she saw rotted teeth, broken and splintered from untreated trauma.

  “Who is that?” Eric’s voice came from right behind her as Alace sucked in a breath. “What’s he doing?”

  “What did you find, boss lady?” Owen’s video had moved as she worked with the surveillance camera. He was close to the holding pen she’d requested he approach first, and she watched as he leaned over to look inside via the center portal. “Empty.” His words matched the image displayed, and she suddenly knew which was the holding pen for the video she’d seen. “Got anything for me?”

  “Worthson is to your left. Cattycorner to that one, there’s an elderly subject being held. Leave him there for now, he appears…perhaps unstable.” Rapidly clicking controllers, she cycled through the camera from over the stairs until she found Todd’s image. He was seated against a wall, shoulder and head propped up by the metal surface. He, thankfully, was not nude, and when he turned to look at the camera, she saw only rage in his expression. Whatever was going on, not only wasn’t he part of it, he was seriously angry at being kidnapped and restrained in this fashion. “Worthson’s awake and alert. He’s probably not in a frame of mind to be patient, so stay away from his pen.” She changed windows to see the car pulling into an open garage door. “Subject two is back. What’s the plan?”

  “You’re leaving Todd behind?” Eric’s disbelief echoed through the words. “Alace, what are you doing?”

  She shook her head and listened for Owen’s response.

  “Tell the fretter I have this. I can rely on my poise and good looks.” He backed up, turning when he reached the stairs. “I am still locked in the house, right?”

  “Alace.”

  “Eric.” She turned and fixed him with a glare. “Please.” He subsided back onto the edge of the bed, elbows propped on his thighs as he leaned forwards. “Owen, you’re correct. Once subject two is inside, I can kill the system again.”

  “Roger that.” At the top of the stairs, he pushed against the section of wall for the hidden door, shifting it to the side when it opened at his touch. He muttered, “Hidden doorways and secret basement hideouts look like fun and games in action movies. So much less so in real life.”

  “Thermal shows they’re both in the kitchen. Subject one and two are in kilo one.” Alace cut the alarm. “Security disabled.” Movement on the thermal had her barking, “Wait.” One figure moved out of the kitchen and into the living room. “You’ve got one coming your way. Unknown which.” The two women had blended together at one point, and she no longer knew which was which. Not that they’d really known before, just identifying them as the one who’d left and the one who remained. “She’ll be on you in seconds.”

  The video from Owen’s bodycam moved, sprinting up the hallway, and she wished again for a standard mic to round out the experience from her end. He must have heard something, because he slowed to time his arrival at the corner with the woman. She came into view, mouth opening as Owen’s hands reached for her. The view from the bodycam went dark, and from the position of the glasses video she saw the top of the woman’s head. He’d gotten her into a lock position and was dragging her back down the hallway.

  “The vid from the holding pens, you got that shit locked down?” Owen’s grip shifted, and he slung the woman over one shoulder, arm around the backs of her legs. She was unconscious. “Alace?”

  “Yes.” She’d disabled local controls, so even if the other sister logged into the computer, all she’d receive were error messages prompting her to uninstall and reinstall the software, which would take half an hour, minimum. “Locked down. What are you doing?”

  “Dishing out some of her own medicine. Figure both sisters are in on this. You found surveillance on their joint computer at the home where neither live but both are hanging out while they have abducted folks stashed in their basement. Tit for tat, man.”

  “I don’t disagree. How long will she be incapacitated?”

  “Not long enough.” Something the software interpreted as a grunt came through the speakers. He was near the bottom of the narrow stairs when she saw the other woman start to move.

  “Bad news.”

  “It’s faint, but I hear her footsteps.” Good, at least he wouldn’t be taken by surprise. “Door is closed, maybe she will think this one went outside.” He stood over one of the empty pens. “Simple latch here; at least they make it easy to get inside.” The entire top of the pen lifted, hinged along one side. “Would not have taken much to put one of these together. Little metal, little welding, little soundproofing, and you have yourself a place to secure a kidnapping victim. Inside it is a lot like what we saw in the clearing, too. The viewing bubble doubles as a hatch for food or water, waste removal. Locks from the outside.” He laid the woman in the pen, having to adjust her position so she stretched corner to corner at an angle. “These are smaller than they look, Alace. Would be a tight fit for a man like Worthson.”

  “She didn’t go outside.”<
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  “Figured as much.” The lid swung shut, closing off Alace’s view of the unconscious woman. “Nowhere to hide, really. I can hunker down next to Worthson. That is about it.”

  “Do that. I’ll ring her cell, see if I can distract her.” Alace went back to the phone company’s software and initiated a call.

  “Stop.” Owen’s voice came through loud. “Disconnect. Wrong phone.”

  “Shit.” She’d been so certain of the idea. Shifting to the other number, she dialed and waited, watching. The thermal imagery showed the woman hesitating outside the basement door, then moving away. “She’s going back to the kitchen.” Alace let the call connect before terminating the contact, hearing a faint “Hello” from the computer speakers. “Owen, you’ve got to get back up there.”

  He was already moving and didn’t bother responding. At the top of the stairs, he opened the door and stepped through, turning to the back door. Alace watched as he opened and closed it with a slam, then ran up the hall to wait just at the corner.

  “Genius,” she breathed out, and saw the woman’s image begin to move. “She’s on her way back.”

  “I got this.” As he had only moments before, he stepped into the woman’s path as she rounded the corner into the hallway, using her own momentum against her to pull her back to his front in a choke hold. Alace saw the individual movements this time, paying attention to how he pulled and swiveled. “Shhhh.” That was directed to the woman who was struggling against his hold, her movements rapidly becoming less coordinated. “Give it up.” She sagged and Alace took in a breath, the first since Owen had slammed that door.

  In another repeat of things that had just transpired, he lifted the woman’s limp body to his shoulder and carried her downstairs. This time, when he lifted the hatch on the holding pen, there was a surprise. Not empty as Alace had thought, it held a woman’s body. Nude, her desiccated skin was on display, bones visualized underneath that thin covering.

  “Uh.” Owen paused. “What now, boss lady?” He raised his head, glasses video focused on the pen where the sister was stashed. “Subject one is awake and angry. I am going to not open that up right now.”

  “Open Worthson’s pen. He’s awake.” She checked the video feed for his enclosure. “And he’s aware something’s going on. Be ready for him to be combative.”

  “I got this.” Owen shifted to the side, standing over the latch to Worthson’s hatch. A lock was threaded through the hasp but not snapped in place, which would make it simple to retrieve him. His voice sounded, so very different from the system voice she’d almost gotten used to. “Dude. I’m going to open your cell. I have a chick you might know in my arms. She’s a bad guy, and I need to secure her. Can you climb out when I open things?”

  “One way to go about it.” Alace shook her head. “Still, be ready.”

  “I got this, boss lady.” Owen’s boot flashed into view as it tapped on the side of the metal box. “I’m with Alace. You get me, man? I’m a good guy here. This chick is a bad guy. Me, good guy.” Whatever he heard must have convinced him, because Owen stooped and removed the lock, flipping the hasp back as he lifted the hatch. Todd stared up at him, blinking, and Alace remembered it was dark in the basement.

  “He can’t see you.” Todd shifted towards the edge, sidling towards where the opening was. “It’s too dark in there.”

  “Oh, my dude. Trust, okay. Climb right on out. There you go.” From the cadence, Owen had adopted his hiker/beach bum persona. The “dude” was a clear giveaway. She liked to hear that, his easy flow of words, would like to have heard Todd’s response. This proved just another reason for a more typical mic as part of the setup. With Owen encouraging him, Todd carefully completed the process of evacuating the pen and tumbled into the open walkway. “That’s right, my dude. Now, in she goes.” He followed the same process as before, aligning this Temple sister with the corners so he could stretch out her limbs. “And let me find a light switch.” Hatch closed, he pushed the lock through the hasp and snapped it tight. Subvocally, he told Alace, “She is taken care of for now.”

  “Tell him to shield his eyes.” Alace kept her gaze on Todd’s face for a moment. “There’s a switch on the wall at the top of the stairs but probably one at the bottom, too. Try just behind you.”

  “Lights on in fifteen seconds, Worthson.” Owen unerringly went to where she now saw a light switch against the wall. “Probably be bright.”

  When Owen turned back to Todd, the grays of infrared were gone, replaced by the grays of cement and painted metal. Todd was on his feet, one hand shielding his eyes. His mouth moved, and while she made out a few words by lip reading, she had to wait for Owen to respond to understand his question.

  “Yes, Alace’s aware you are okay. She’s in my ear but cannot hear.” The bodycam shook and she realized he was laughing. “I rhymed, boss lady.”

  “Dial me in, Owen. The op is finished. Well done.”

  “Beloved.” Eric’s hands landed on her shoulders, and she leaned her head back against his solid frame. “You did it.”

  “Tell your man that we did it. We make a good team, Alace.” Owen had the glasses in his hands and lifted them, pointed at his face. “We done good, boss lady.” His wide grin filled the screen.

  “Yes, we did.”

  ***

  Todd

  Fingers running lightly over the upper half of the steering wheel, Todd Worthson stared at the old house sitting only a few blocks away at the end of a well-known cul-de-sac. He’d just come from the third floor of the small county hospital where Maddy and Mackie were being held, the antiseptic smell of the mental ward clinging to his clothes. He still experienced tiny bursts of bitterness on each indrawn breath.

  I just don’t understand.

  Oh, of course he had the mechanics of what had happened. Well remembered the surprise of seeing who he’d thought was Maddy in his house, how he’d imagined for a moment her having let herself in was a sign they were moving forwards. The shock when he’d realized it wasn’t her.

  Waking in darkness, inside an enclosure not tall enough to stand up in, mapping it on his knees to find four corners and no doors—he wasn’t ashamed to say he’d panicked and pounded against the walls. He cleared his throat, the burn of overused vocal cords a painful reminder of the hours he’d spent screaming and shouting.

  That house. That damn house.

  He hadn’t known.

  How did I not know?

  He’d been eleven when Maddy and Mackie disappeared for a time.

  He remembered the day they’d disappeared with crystal clarity, because it was also the day it had stopped for him. The last time old man Temple had teased Todd into that house with promises of candy and cartoons.

  When they’d showed back up in class at school, he hadn’t cared when they wouldn’t answer questions about where they’d been. Todd had just been ecstatic his best friends in the world were back.

  And the monsters had retreated to the darkness where they belonged.

  Until they’d shown back up in his kitchen, clad inside the skin of his girlfriend.

  His phone buzzed against the hard plastic of the console, and he scooped it up. Gaze fixed on the house, he answered without looking at the screen. “Judge Worthson.”

  “What are you doing back there, Todd?”

  The spit in his mouth dried to dust.

  If he’d ever thought old man Temple was frightening, he’d been wrong.

  Terror was a diminutive woman named Alace Sweets.

  Dread prickled under his arms as he cleared his throat, the pain less of a factor now he couldn’t spare any thought to it. “I grew up around the corner.”

  “I know that.” Of course she did. He was finding that Alace knew everything. “Why are you back there now?”

  “I knew them all my life. My whole life. I can’t…I don’t understand what happened.”

  “I suspect we’ll find their mother wasn’t very stable. Some things are genetic, Todd.
” He shook his head, the idea that simple ancestry was to blame for everything. “Don’t shake your head at me.” Todd froze. She’s watching me. “Yes, I know. Deal with it. Remember when I told you that taking the first step was proving intent to plunge fully down the rabbit hole with me? This is part of what I meant.”

  “How long?” He wasn’t even sure exactly what he was asking, but Alace seemed to understand immediately.

  “The evil things that happened to them would have played a part. But their mother orchestrated a prison break for their abuser and then made them responsible for not just his life but keeping a huge secret in order to keep their mother safe. Their entire lives were organized around ensuring Grandpa was fed and watered, kept breathing. Imagine it. Vacations coordinated, nights out, college plans set aside for local schools because once Mom was gone, it was all on them.” Alace sighed as if the very thought was exhausting. “Mom died and Mackie, she was done. But Maddy started taking off unexpectedly, disappearing for months at a time. Do you remember that?”

  “Yeah. We hadn’t started dating yet. I was building my career, starting my run towards election. I’d have dinner with Mackie once a month or so. She was always complaining about how unreliable Maddy was. Then after Maddy and I got together, she seemed to settle down for a while.”

  “Then Mackie decided to move to Utah.” Alace’s voice was quiet, musing in tone. “That announcement set Maddy back on her heels, didn’t it?”

  “Oh, God. The arguments those two had. I didn’t understand why Maddy was so angry. It felt disloyal, but to me it seemed like it was just Mackie’s turn, you know?”

  The front door of the house opened, and the distance was far enough he couldn’t recognize the male figure that walked out. Then, he watched in disbelief as whoever it was turned to wave at him from the porch steps. While he sat there, stunned, the man took the final step down to the sidewalk and turned away from him, heading around the far side of the house.

  “What is going—”